As is well known in cable installation, the smooth unwinding of cable from its reel, so that the reel rotation accomodates to cable withdrawal while maintaining the cable under substantially constant tension, is highly desirable and essential to high speed operation and good quality of results.
While it has been attemped in the prior art to obtain smooth unreeling operation in cable installation, the apparatus has not been well adapted to operation with reels of different sizes and types, or out-of-true reels, which are quite common due to attempted economies. Hence, prior art devices have been subject to jerking, wobbling and erratic unwinding rotation, causing excessive slack in the cable and high variations in tension applied to the cable during the installation.
Examples of prior art devices of which applicants are aware are as follows:
______________________________________ U.S. Pat. No. PATENTEE ______________________________________ 2,213,764 Hermann 2,924,869 Klein et al. 2,948,483 Petersen 3,091,413 Leithiser 3,586,256 Wellman 4,131,241 Meier 4,190,211 Janzen 4,325,522 Sauber 4,353,515 Weaver et al. 4,365,768 Woodruff ______________________________________